Judicial Watch v. Dep't of State, No. 13-1363, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 62283 (D.D.C. May 4, 2016) (Sullivan, J.)

Judicial Watch v. Dep't of State, No. 13-1363, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 62283 (D.D.C. May 4, 2016) (Sullivan, J.)

Re: Request for employment records of Hillary Clinton advisor

Disposition: Ordering discovery and explaining in more detail basis for court's February 28, 2016 decision to grant plaintiff's request for discovery

• Litigation Considerations, Discovery:  The court holds that "[plaintiff] raises significant questions in its Motion for Discovery about whether the State Department processed documents in good faith in response to [plaintiff's] FOIA request."  "[Plaintiff] is therefore entitled to limited discovery."  The court specifically points to "[plaintiff's] alleg[ation] that the State Department and Mrs. Clinton sought to 'deliberately thwart FOIA' through the creation and use of clintonemail.com."  The court finds that "the circumstances surrounding approval of Mrs. Clinton's use of clintonemail.com for official government business, as well as the manner in which it was operated, are issues that need to be explored in discovery to enable the Court to resolve, as a matter of law, the adequacy of the State Department's search of relevant records in response to [plaintiff's] FOIA request."